Health experts, stakeholders and individual citizens participating in Commissioner David Byrne’s consultation on the future of EU health policy have broadly endorsed his vision of “good health for all”.
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Respondents agreed with Byrne on the need for Europe to pro-actively promote good health. Action on tobacco, in particular, was a top priority, along with alcohol, nutrition, exercise and promoting safe food. Many stressed the urgent need to promote healthy lifestyles to children and teenagers to help counter problems such as obesity. Other factors impacting on health, such as environmental, social and economic issues, were also viewed as important.
Respondents backed Commissioner Byrne on the need to ensure all EU policies are good for health – with some putting forward proposals on how to achieve this by using health impact assessment, health targets or synergies with other EU policies. Byrne will hand the results of his consultation to Markos Kyprianou, who is due to take over from him as Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection on 1 November.
“The message from this consultation is loud and clear. Europeans attach a very high priority to public health. They want to see concrete results from the EU in this area and they want to be involved in health policy debates,” said Byrne.
For more information on Byrne’s reflection paper and the list of responses received, click here.
